GMAT Strategy

Hey guys,

My school requires me to get a 450 score on the GMAT, do you think that I'm ready to go for the real test?


Here are the scores from January 22 up to today...

Same tests: GMAT Prep tests 1 and 2 (January 22- February 6): 430, 470, 440, 520, 550, 530

Different tests:
Manhattan Gmat tests 1, 2, 3 (February 15, February 17, February19): 450, 530, 500
Veritas Prep tests 1, 2 ( February 12, February 18): 470, 450

Marc.

didieravoaka wrote:Hey guys,

My school requires me to get a 450 score on the GMAT, do you think that I'm ready to go for the real test?


Here are the scores from January 22 up to today...

Same tests: GMAT Prep tests 1 and 2 (January 22- February 6): 430, 470, 440, 520, 550, 530

Different tests:
Manhattan Gmat tests 1, 2, 3 (February 15, February 17, February19): 450, 530, 500
Veritas Prep tests 1, 2 ( February 12, February 18): 470, 450

Marc.

Sure, there's every reason to believe you'll exceed the school's minimum threshold based on your practice test scores. Worst case scenario - you cancel and then retake 16 days later.

Thanks David! That's good news!

So you think that in less than a month I can definitely go beyond the 450 score. Is that right?

Given how you have been scoring, in less than a month you could score over 550 with the right training.

It may make sense to buy the Exam Pack in order to get some fresh official practice tests. Once you take a test twice, you are pretty much done with it. Taking the same test more than once or twice can be a way to develop complacency or habits that won't serve you well on test day.

Anyway, those Manhattan and Veritas test scores are pretty accurate indicators of how you will score on test day.

Just be sure to keep training and shooting for higher hit rates and scores, so that you will be ready to play the game come test day.

Thanks Murray! But tell me, which Exam Pack are you talking about? I'm interesting in getting it besides the Manhattan and Veritas packs that I got already. I bought both Exam Packs and done 5/12 exams overall so far.
Do you think that I should get some other pack to practice more and get a score over 550?

I meant the Exam Pack from GMAC. It includes two tests, GMAT Prep 3 and 4.

You can purchase it here. https://www.mba.com/us/store/store-catal ... ack-1.aspx

You have plenty of practice tests. I am merely saying that if you want to take more official tests, you could get more by purchasing the the Exam Pack.

In order to score over 550, probably you should go over your tests and find things that you could be doing better, and then between tests focus on getting better at those things.

For one thing, you could use the Manhattan analytics to get a sense of what types of questions you are missing. Then you could focus on learning about and practicing handling those types.

Basically to score 550, you need to get right about five to ten more questions than you have been. So by focusing on say five to ten types of questions between now and when you take the test, you could set yourself up to get enough more right answers to score 550.

Much of the value of the practice tests lies in guidance you can get from the results. By seeing what you did, you can determine what you have to work on in order to score higher.

To focus on verbal question types, you could use the Veritas Question Bank.

To focus on quant question types, you could go to the GMAT area here, https://bellcurves.com, sign up for a practice account, and go to the quant part of the question bank and do questions by category.

When you take practice tests, you are doing the questions on a timed basis, which does not give you much of a chance to develop hacking skills or other skills necessary for getting right answers. So for a different kind of training, do the practice questions more slowly and carefully, emphasizing learning how to get right answers consistently.

If you were to use the Veritas questions to improve the processes you use when doing verbal questions, you would probably get at least 3 to 5 more right answers to verbal questions, and by doing question type focused work in quant, you could train to get more right answers in the quant section. So by doing those things, in addition to continuing to take practice tests, potentially you could drive your score up to or above 550.

Probably, also you could get some points just by improving the accuracy of what you are doing. I mean in addition to learning some new ways to handle things, you could work on becoming more accurate in doing what you already know how to do.

Thank you very much Murray. I really really appreciate your advice and tips. I will follow carefully everything you said. I will go over my tests and try to find things that I can improve. I will keep you posted.
Thanks again.